_The Hunter's Vow_ is, we think, the best of the series. A dreamy student who can never be induced to forsake his books for the more appropriate toils of a backwoods' existence, is suddenly aroused from his apathy by the murder of his old father by an Indian--a murder which takes place under the scholar's own eyes, and which might have been prevented but for his ignorance in the art of handling and loading a rifle. The entire change wrought in the boy's character is well managed. The _Heiress of Brandsby_ is a tale neither so verisimilar, nor so well told. It details the love of a Virginian heiress for a Methodist of no very enticing character; and concludes by the utter subversion, through the means of all powerful love, of the lady's long cherished notions of aristocracy. The _Frenchman's Story_ has appeared before in the American Monthly Magazine. It is a well imagined and well executed tale of the French Revolution. The fate of M. Girond "_who left town suddenly_," is related with that air of naked and unvarnished truth so apt to render even a silly narrative interesting. The _Englishman's Story_ is a failure--full of such palpable folly that we have a difficulty in ascribing it to the same pen which wrote the other portions of the volume. The whole tale betrays a gross ignorance of law in general--and of English law in especial. The _Yankee's Story_ is much better--but not very good. We have our doubts as to the genuine Yankeeism of the narrator. His language, at all events, savors but little of _Down East_. The _Wyandot's Story_ is also good (this too has appeared in the American Monthly Magazine)--but we have fault to find, likewise, with the phraseology in this instance. No Indian, let Chateaubriand and others say what they please, ever indulged, for a half hour at a time, in the disjointed and hyperbolical humbug here attributed to the Wyandot. The _Minute Men_ is the last of the series, and from its being told by the author himself, is, we suppose, considered by him the best. It is a tale of the year seventy-five--but, although interesting, we do not think it equal to either _The Frenchman's Story_ or _The Hunter's Vow_. We recommend the volume to the attention of our readers. It is excellently gotten up. TRAITS OF AMERICAN LIFE. _Traits of American Life. By Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Editor of "The American Ladies' Magazine," and Author of "Northwood," "Flora's Interpreter," &c. &c. Philadelphia: E. L. Carey, and A. Hart._